Thinking about this Christianity

In the dark? Look for The Son

Not sure if you think this Christianity thing is real or not? I hope you take a few minutes to read through this list of arguments.It is my prayer that this piece gives you a better understanding why faith in Jesus Christ is so important, real, and honestly easy to grasp once some issues are laid out.

Argument One

The Bible is just a book of old, moral stories. Jesus Christ was just a man. He lived and died. Science proves the nonexistence of God.

Reply

If the Gospels were written by men that just wanted to have the Jesus legend remembered, why would all the doubters and unbelievers be mentioned? Why would opposition toward Christ be presented?  This book ha been translated from Hebrew to Greek to every other language known to man. The facts are these: The continuity between the timelines between the events that occurred in what we call the Old Testament and New cannot be disputed. All of the prophecies that were recorded by the prophets of old concerning the virgin birth, life, death and return of Christ came to pass as true in the new. There is no way at all in this world that all of the old prophecies could have been recorded and saved all those years just to have some come to pass as truth by coincidence. So you may be thinking how can I believe the book? Let us briefly look as a disciple turned apostle named Thomas. Thomas had heard the news that Jesus was alive after the crucifixion. Thomas had traveled with Christ, had eaten at the Last Supper, and still did not believe. He said, he would only believe if he could see and feel the nail scarred hands, the wounds Christ suffered.  Knowing all this, Christ appeared to Thomas and said to him, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe”

Evangelical Christians believe the following:

1.The Holy Bible is God's Word. The inspiration of scripture is from God Almighty. It was written by men, but given to them by His Holiness, the Living God. His Word is true.

 2.   Christ was born from a virgin named Mary.

3. Jesus Christ was a flesh and blood man, but at the same time He was and IS FULLY GOD.

4. The Lord God Jesus Christ, at the  +(cross), paid our sin debt SO WE CAN SPEND ETERNITY with GOD THE FATHER.

5. The Lord God Jesus Christ, after paying our debt, being our sacrifice, died, but rose from death and the grave on the third day!

6. The Lord God Jesus Christ will return for His children.

Argument Two

I am not a sinner! I haven’t killed anyone or cheated or beat my kids or whatever… What’s this Holy Spirit business?  God loves all of us!

Reply

         I will not waste your time by trying to answer your questions with my own knowledge or words. As an evangelical Christian, I will always refer to the Holy Bible as my anchor.We are taught in scripture that all fall short of God. Regardless of how good a person you are, all of us cannot measure up to the goodness of Jesus. So by judging ourselves by Jesus' standards, we cannot come close to goodness naturally. Moses is credited for the 10 Commandments with folks forgetting that God directly spoke them to him.  If we judge ourselves by the top 10 (Commandments), we will see in solid detail that we are sinners. People like to say, "Well, I'm a good person. I don't steal from work," or "I don't cheat," but what happens If we break the commandment about honoring our mom and dad? What if we lie about something? Jesus taught that if you break one, you break them all!

WHAT?You mean if I steal a piece of candy, I’m the same as a murderer?

       Jesus said, “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."

So what? I don’t believe in this Jesus stuff!

        In the book of James, it is written that even the demons know the One God (Jesus) and they shudder.All of the world’s religions even Islam acknowledges the existence of a teacher named Jesus. The existence of Jesus cannot be denied, but His being God is by so many. He is real. His instruction book if you will, is for all people to know Him. Scripture tells that on the last day, Judgment Day, everyone will proclaim Christ as Lord. But for so many that day will be too late.

       The resurrected Christ told his believers that they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit also called the Great Comforter. When we realize our need for Christ, we repent, we turn from our sin, which means we stop doing the thing that we know is a sin. We ask Christ to save us. The Holy Spirit of God fills us and we feel Jesus in our lives every day. We must not be like the demons and just know God, we must believe in Jesus. We walk with Him daily, grow in His Word, we must have a real relationship with Him.  We must believe He died for our sins and rose again on the third day defeating hell, death, and the grave.

Argument Three x 2

    Why would God send His children to Hell? God made us right? There cannot be just one way to Heaven! Forget it! There ain't no Heaven!

     First of all, God made everyone. He made you, your loved ones, the murderer on death row, the sex offender down the street, everyone. We are not children of God just because God created us. There are numerous scriptures that tell us this, but I really like John 1:12-13.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

The moment we repent and cry out to Jesus to save us, we are sealed by His blood, made righteous in the eyes of God the Father, and have our eternity settled. We are then and only then true children of THE lIVING GOD.

Hell. We use that word to describe pain, visits from family, our jobs, and many other things in this life. People say God loves all and won’t send so and so to hell. Again, let us look to God's Word. Look here: 2 Peter 2:4-10

4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.

Jesus said He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one goes to God except through the grace of Christ.

    How do I address those of you who do not believe anything? You think when you die, that's it, game over. The Bible, God's Word, says that the fool in his heart says there is no God. Only the truly arrogant deny the existence of His majesty. You never find an atheist as a tornado survivor. IT'S UNIQUE IS IT NOT, THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO CRY OUT TO JESUS IN THE MIDST OF TRIALS AND PROBLEMS?

    Ask yourself now as we are on page three, what happens if you die within the next few breaths? If you are right, your God is merciful enough to let you in Heaven because you are a good person that has done enough good, Jesus’ death really meant nothing, and two thousand years' worth of believers have also died some very violent deaths for a lie. Maybe there’s nothing. When you die, the maggots feast on your flesh, and no more. Yet, what if everything I’ve written about right here is true? Do you truly have enough confidence in your own knowledge to deny the existence of Jesus Christ, the Savior of all mankind? He said He was the ONLY WAY to God the Father. Please read my testimony for further study. If it does not show up on your screen, highlight the entire page. It’s there. I pray this has in some way been a blessing to you.

Doing the Job?

      Authority figures come in all shapes and sizes and at different places in life: Moms and dads, school teachers, bosses, etc. Buckle up and read.

      “You can’t talk about the church and government,” screams the liberal. “It’s unconstitutional!” Um, no, it isn’t. Separation of church and state does not appear in The Constitution, but it does occur in Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. What you will find are the words like government shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion OR prohibiting the free exercise thereof. However:

      “She should do her job,” decry the civil liberty supporters. #Love Wins advocate cheer the arrest of the married, divorced, remarried government employee that refuses to do the job, uphold the oath she took all the while, the aforementioned opponents point out how, she, a Christian hypocrite refuses to do the job based on “God’s Authority.” It is an open and shut case, right?

Romans 13:1

Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God.

     Right away, the ever educated skeptic, secularist will use the verse to insinuate that “God according to the book allowed communist regimes to reign, and allowed Nazis to take control in the 1940s.”  They may even wanna throw the conversation between Jesus and Pilate where Christ reminds the ruler he only had power because God allowed it. In the case of Pilate, the big picture shows he was necessary to be a part of God’s redemptive plan. With other bad governments that come to be, it is easy, ironically enough for Christians and non-Christians a like to say, “It must be God’s will,” or “It’s karma,” when bad things happen or bad rulers reign.  

    In Paul’s time, Christians were almost public enemy number one, were rounded up, beaten and killed. Nero tried to destroy all copies of scripture and erase it from the world. And here Paul is saying that the established powers, i.e. those in charge are so because their power is established by the very God that in most cases is mocked by said ruling bodies. Therein lies the rub so to say. If a Democrat is the president, the Republicans will complain and vice versa. Think about like this by remembering what Jesus said to the man, Pilate as previously mentioined that “allowed” the crucifixion to occur. Jesus told him, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.”

      I am not going to be so boastful as to question why God let Nero reign, why Hitler was allowed to kill the chosen Israelites, why Islamic jihadist losers flew planes into the towers, but I will say in my honest opinion, perhaps out of these horrible atrocities, we as people, and as a nation will in sincerity turn to Him and not continually run away until we need to feel secure again.
 ²Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
            The word damnation in this regard means judgment. Christian people sealed by the blood of Christ cannot lose their salvation, but don’t think for a moment that we cannot and will not be disciplined by the Father upon the Day of Judgment.
 ³For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
 ⁴For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
            Sorry to disrespect Thoreau, but civil disobedience isn’t always the best course. Now there are those that will say America would never have been made if we did not break away from England thus doing what is contrary to what is said here. That is not exactly true. Look back at American History. Speaking of which, let’s have a look just for those who hold to the belief that American is not now or ever was a Christian nation with the words of Republicans and Democrats past on the issue of God’s sovereignty in government:

    In 1776, 11 of the 13 colonies required that one had to be a Christian to be eligible to run for political office.
    In 1777, the Continental Congress voted to spend $300,000 to purchase Bibles for distribution in the nation.
The GETTYSBURG ADDRESS states "...this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom..."
94% OF THE WRITINGS OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF THE U.S. CONTAINED QUOTATIONS FROM THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS OF ALL 50 STATES MENTION GOD.
On that First "Thanksgiving", who do you think the people were giving thanks to? To God!
The famous "Liberty Bell" has part of Leviticus 25:10 inscribed on it: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."
Part of the Scripture Proverbs 14:34 is inscribed above the L.A. city hall door: "RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETH A NATION: BUT SIN IS A REPROACH TO ANY PEOPLE."
An image of Moses carrying the tablets of God’s Law faces the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The entering President takes his courtroom OATH OF OFFICE with his right hand on the Holy Bible, and concludes his vow "So help me God."
The Supreme Court itself begins each of its sessions with the phrase ’God save the United States and this honorable court,’
First Vice President and Second President, John Adams wrote in 1798:
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
 President Thomas Jefferson:
"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." - 1781
Our sixth President, John Quincy Adams said:
"No book in the world deserves to be so unceasingly studied, and so profoundly meditated upon as the Bible." -
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin said,
"God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

The Christian writings and pronouncements of our 16th President Abraham Lincoln would fill an entire book. He said this when he assumed leadership over a nation on the brink of civil war:

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven… But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." - 1863
*Theodore Roosevelt, America’s 26th President, wrote:
      "In this actual world, a churchless community, a community where men have abandoned and scoffed at, or ignored their religious needs, is a community on the rapid down-grade." - 1917
*Woodrow Wilson, our 28th President and Governor of New Jersey, said this:
"America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of the Holy Scripture." - 1911
*Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President, said this about our founding fathers:
       "They were intent upon establishing a Christian commonwealth in accordance with the principle of self- government. They were an inspired body of men. It has been said that God sifted the nations that He might send choice grain into the wilderness... Who can fail to see it in the hand of destiny? Who can doubt that it has been guided by a Divine Providence?" - 1923
*Franklin Roosevelt prayed this prayer on a national radio hookup on D-Day, June 6, 1944, as our troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France:
"Almighty God... with Thy blessing we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogance. Lead us to the saving of our country. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen."

*Harry Truman, our 33rd President, not known to be a committed believer, understood the spiritual heritage of this nation:
"If men and nations would but live by the precepts of the ancient prophets and the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, problems which now seem so difficult would soon disappear”

*Gerald Ford, our 38th President, quoted a 1955 speech by Dwight D. Eisenhower on December 5, 1974:
"Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first - the most basic - expression of Americanism. Thus the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God’s help, it will continue to be."
*President Ronald Reagan:
"If we ever forget that we are ’One nation, under God’, then we will be one nation gone under."

So allow me to close with one final verse. You can argue that while employed the clerk should do her job. Most certainly you can question her sincerity if she stamped or issued licenses to other sinners, such well, all of us if not redeemed by Christ’s blood at Calvary, and not same sex partners. The First Amendment says we all can speak and question. But here’s the last verse. Peter and the Apostles were told not to preach the name of Jesus and spread His Word. They were beaten, jailed, and all but one killed for refusal to walk away from the Christ. Here it is in Acts of the Apostles chapter 5 verse 29:  But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men.

MOVING, GOING, OR STANDING?

Does your spiritual elevator go up? JOHN 6:60-67

Before we get to the issue of tonight’s study, here is the deal: Jesus as recorded in John 6:41-59 is explaining that He is the bread WHICH CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, VERSE 41. He explains in verse 54 that WHOEVER EATS MY FLESH AND DRINKS MY BLOOD WILL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. THIS CONFUSED A LOT OF FOLKS. NOW WE GET TO THE MAIN PART-our message tonight. Let’s look at verse 60 and following:

60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"

61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you?

62 What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before!

63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.

65 He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."

66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

They chose not to follow Jesus because they did not understand that they and we must rely on Him for our spiritual life sustaining nourishment. If we think about the elevator concept, it applies here. Many people today in their Christian walk are still on the ground floor. They for whatever reason cannot grow or keeping with the elevator theme go further in their spiritual walk or get to a higher floor. Sometimes, people push the emergency button if the elevator stops or starts moving too slow. Some Christians reserve the option in their mind to overrule God, and the Bible in any matter or course of action by pushing that emergency button and running from God much like so many of the disciples did. By doing that they can choose only what pleases them, or whatever is less of a requirement. I will not claim to know the will of God in every instance, but I don’t see God blessing that kind of behavior.

Our own desires keep us from moving closer to Christ, a lot of times, friends and even our own family members keep us from the cross.

Here’s a few quick examples:

Too many allow family to keep them from going to church and S/S. When the baby is sick why does the whole family including both grandparents and two sets of aunts and uncles have to stay home to administer medication? It’s not like that on Monday. I HAVE A SONG THAT PROVES THIS AT THE END.

Not here, but I have heard people say that they couldn’t come if there wasn’t a nursery for the children. I realize the comfort and the convenience that is there in having the nursery, but that should not be an issue. The nursery should not be the deciding factor of your faithfulness to church. The children do not hinder from planning your vacation. They don’t keep you from going to Wal-Mart. They don’t keep you from going to the lake on the week-ends. They don’t keep very many from going to little league baseball or football. Don’t allow your family to prevent you from being a disciple.

There will be a whole lot of hell filled with people who let their family hinder them from getting saved.

 We focus too much on the natural world and we do forget that we serve or are supposed to serve a very supernatural God.

65 He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."

If we think back to how we each one met Jesus and more to the point, realized our need for Him, it’ll come to us that someone told us about the cross, sin, and our need for God.  A.W. Tozer said, “The impulse to pursue God originates with God.” We search and look for God because He is always drawing us closer using others to share and tell about His love and Grace. He wants us back. A LOT of people say only a certain number of people can be saved or a certain denomination, but the Bible clarifies and repeats time after time that God does not want anyone to perish.

As with close, Jesus asked and I do believe is still asking today in verse 67, “Will you also go away?”

Each day we carry the cross as He told us to. This world, the very creation has turned its back on the Creator. What will we do? We must remember we have others watching our footsteps daily. Will we follow Christ or stay on the ground floor of the spiritual elevator?